European insurance companies eager to work with Iranian airlines

Civil Aviation Organization of Iran has announced that a number of European insurance firms are willing to work with Iranian airlines amid speculations that Iran and the P5+1 countries will soon reach a final deal over Tehran’s nuclear program.

According to a statement released by the Public Relations Department of the Civil Aviation Organization of Iran, the European insurance companies, whose names were not revealed in the statement, are also willing to start preliminary negotiations with the Iranian authorities to determine the conditions for their cooperation with the Iranian airlines.

The statement further added that after European countries indicated their readiness to return to Iran once sanctions against the country are removed, the Civil Aviation Organization has taken steps to pave the way for cooperation between the Iranian airlines and European insurers.

During past years and as a result of unjust sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic over its peaceful nuclear program, foreign insurance companies refrained from providing insurance and reinsurance services to their Iranian counterparts as well as the Iranian airlines.

The United States and the European Union imposed sanctions on Iran at the beginning of 2012, alleging that the country’s nuclear program was diverted toward military objectives; an allegation that Iran categorically rejected.

The Islamic Republic and the P5+1 group of countries – the US, the UK, France, Germany, Russia and China – reached a mutual understanding on April 2 in the Swiss city of Lausanne, which is considered a prelude to the achievement of a comprehensive deal on Tehran’s nuclear program before a self-designated deadline at the end of June. A key point of the Lausanne statement was a promise to lift a series of economic sanctions on Iran.

The Civil Aviation Organization’s statement came at a time that Iran's Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi is currently in France and has already met with Airbus Chief Executive Fabrice Bregier in Paris.

According to French media, Akhoundi is in France on the invitation of the French government to attend the International Paris Air Show.

In addition to Bregier, the Iranian minister has also met and conferred with French Minister of Territorial Equality and Housing Sylvia Pinel.

No report has been yet released on the details of those meetings.

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